


Broken

by greyheart



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Beware, Hurt No Comfort, I Don't Even Know, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Would it be better if superheroes were real?, it's a hard knock life, no plot really, sad things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27687211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyheart/pseuds/greyheart
Summary: Red Hood comes across a woman standing on a ledge.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. I just needed to write this.

“You don’t want to die.”

The woman startled, not enough to risk falling but she took a step back anyway.

The Red Hood stood down the ledge a bit, his signature helmet off, letting her see the worry on his face.

She seemed dazed, not altogether there, as she held out her phone, “It broke.”

He glanced at the cracked screen, only the top fifth of the screen working.

“I can’t afford a new one.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, “I don’t think-“

“I was going to sign up for a paid study today, but now I can’t. I wouldn’t get paid for a month but I need the money. I don’t have any. Not enough for rent or power, “she took a shaky breath, “Do you have any idea how many times my power has been turned off? I couldn’t afford insurance for my car so my registration was taken away. Now I’ll need proof of insurance and then have to pay for the registration again and a re-registration fee.”

She looked at him, her eyes wild, “How am I supposed to do that without a phone?”

“My husband has a job but they haven't worked him in three weeks. He’s trying to get into a study as well because he’s too tall for manual labor, which sounds fake but everything is built for people shorter than him, so every day he comes home crying because he can barely walk. Our credit cards are maxed out and we're late paying them off. My socks don’t match,” she laughed, looking down at the purple and grey socks, “They’re three years old, so are my shoes. My bra broke a few weeks ago,” she said, feeling slightly hysterical now, “it was just as old, now I wear this backup sports bra that I’ve had for six years. I can’t justify buying anything for myself, not when my kids need things for school.”

Red Hood latched onto that, “You’ve got kids? You must love them very much. They-“

“Christmas is coming,” she interrupted again, not slowing down, “I can’t buy my kids clothes to keep warm. I didn’t realize until we pulled out the hand-me-down box that my youngest son wouldn’t have any pants besides pajama bottoms. Most of their clothes come from cousins or my mom.” She sagged at the thought, “She does a better job taking care of them than I do.”

“I doubt that,” Hood insisted, “You’re their Mom. They know you’re doing your best, trust me.”

“But it's not good enough, it’s  _ never _ good enough! I’m in school right now, full time, and I can’t work a job, be a mom, and work around my husband’s schedule when it’s erratic! I can’t. I know other people can but I can’t. I’m only doing full time so I can graduate next semester and get a good job. And now I can’t even afford my next semester.”

The phone screen began flickering more erratically.

“Things sound pretty rough right now. But you’ve made it this far haven't you?”

She looked unsure, “I guess? But where is here exactly? It doesn’t feel like we’ve gone anywhere. Our anniversary was yesterday. We were thinking about splurging, you know, since we couldn’t afford rent anyway, and go to a movie,” She sighed, slowly sitting down on the ledge, “Then we found $20 was missing from our account.” She looked over at the Hood as he sat down next to her, and explained, “Sometimes one of his alters comes out and spends the money we don’t have on alcohol and cigarettes.”

He huffed, “They sound like assholes.”   
She stared out at nothing, “Yeah, well, it’s how they cope.”

They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the city, before she turned to him again, “You get it, don’t you? You know what it’s like to make some rice, a can of beans and a bouillon cube last a few days because there’s nothing else?”

“Yeah,” Hood agreed quietly, “I know.”

She smiled, “I’m losing weight at least. It’s hard to, with my anxiety. It’s why I got turned away from the paid study the first time, I was .4 above their max allowed BMI.” She leaned over, “Technically, I obese.”

“Fuck, technically,” Hood snapped, “Technically I’m dead.”

That got her to smile again, even though it probably shouldn’t have been funny.

“You don’t want to die,” he said again, “You just want your life as you know it to end.”

“I know,” she agreed, her shoulders dropping, she’d been repeating that to herself more and more often lately.

She heard him sign in frustration, “I wish I could help you more.”

“You’re being really nice right now,” she squeezed the phone, “I wish you were real.”

She didn’t bother turning to him this time, he wasn’t there.

At this point, she was willing to live in a world with supervillains if it meant a hero was sitting on the ledge with her right now.

She looked down at her phone, the screen blank, not even flickering anymore, and then back over the ledge.


End file.
